Tragedy, What is It?

In Arthur Miller's "Tragedy and the Common Man," he discusses the many ways that tragedy could be perceived by many different people. While also discussing the many common misconceptions about Tragedy that often gets highlighted in today's society. One of the very first things that he discusses in this piece is the subject of Tragedy being associated with nobility or royalty. He argues that instead of only the nobles being able to experience Tragedy, the common man, meaning us, can easily experience these as well.

Arthur Miller goes into saying how "the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his "rightful" position in his society." This idea is a very true one. This is because a lot of tragic stories often start off with the so-called hero trying to prove himself to someone, or a group of people in order for him to get truly accepted into his society and get a better life. This makes the inevitable tragic failure that comes to follow even more devastating because we know that the character has had the drive to make himself known to be more than just another person in the minds of the people that he knows and loves. And when he inevitably fails, we feel for him too because we know his story and all of the struggles that he had to go through.

Arthur Miller's views on what Tragedy is has opened my eyes to even more possibilities to what stories could also be considered "tragic." I have never thought any deeper than that of: "Tragedy is just about a character experiencing a large amount of pain and maybe dying at the end." Miller's views sheds light on subjects that truly relate to how most people see the subject of tragedy.